Ask HN: How to limit AI coding tools access to the file system?

2 zzabc 2 4/21/2025, 12:44:30 AM

Hello HN, is there a way to prevent AI coding tools like Cursor and Claude Code from having access to the whole file system, and limit them to the project directory?

I am asking as someone who works for many clients and on their own projects on the same computer and who is still hesitating to install these tools.

Comments (2)

benoau · 11d ago

You could use a separate, limited user account for each project.

You could also confine them to containers pretty easily, VSCode has some solid extensions for SSH and container-based development.

dtagames · 10d ago

I have never seen Cursor reach outside the open repo unless you ask it to.

Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2025)

Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (May 2025)

Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)

How is Microsoft getting away with this?

What are the AI MCP servers wish you existed?

Ask HN: What's a good system to remember to wear my reading glasses at my desk?

Ask HN: 3rd Week at FAANG and feeling imposter syndrome

A affordable retrocomputer compatible with the C64

Ask HN: Email Client

Ask HN: Share your AI prompt that stumps every model

Ask HN: Memory-safe low level languages?

Ask HN: What's the modern distributed data processing stack?

Ask HN: Parents of young kids: how do you teach that hitting is not acceptable?

Payment processors shouldn't be able to charge through an expired card

Ask HS: Career Advice for Someone Struggling

Ask HN: Are there any apps to track grocery prices in local stores?

Ask HN: CS degrees, do they matter again?

Ask HN: What benchmarks are you using to judge AI models?

Ask HN: What Makes a Good Datasheet?

Ask HN: What are your favourite daily puzzle games?

Ask HN: Sold my company, parents passed away – feeling lost. What now?

New Way to Fund Solo-Founders?

Ask HN: I don't want to work in software anymore. Where do I go?

Ask HN: What Is the Hacker News for Medicine?

Ask HN: When will Wayland eclipse X?

Ask HN: Alternatives to Deploys per Million Metric?

Ask HN: Do you know niche job board for jobs that are NOT remote?

I want to help clear EU skies from US clouds

Ask HN: Resources for LeetCode Grinding?

Kronotop: Horizontally scalable, distributed, transactional document database

Ask HN: Can vibe coding competitions be challenging and fair?

Ask HN: Valuable habit you've stuck with? What was key to making it stick?

Has anyone else found Google's AI overview to be oddly error prone?

Ask HN: Do you have a blog you own or follow?

Ask HN: How to fix issue and find the origin of bug in codebase?

Ask HN: Did someone dig into the JFK files?

Ask HN: How do you get into systems programming

Ask HN: My CEO wants to go hard on AI. What do I do?

Ask HN: Is there a list of projects that will *not* adopt AI?

Ask HN: How to limit AI coding tools access to the file system?

Comments (2)

Ask HN: Is there a list of projects that will not adopt AI?